


David

by garilin



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Past Abuse, Short One Shot, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-03
Updated: 2018-06-03
Packaged: 2019-05-17 19:23:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14837699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/garilin/pseuds/garilin
Summary: Nineteen days he had sat there, in that attic, and yet when those police sirens had finally inspired him to flee he still had no idea what to do. Where to go.





	David

**Author's Note:**

> Ortiz's android doesn't have a canon name, but he looks like a David to me so that's what I went with. It's going to be fun when other people start writing fics for him and he ends up having like 20 different names.

He doesn't know how long he's been walking. The streets are blessedly empty, save for the occasional street cat. He's beyond grateful; his short sleeves leave the gaping wound on his arm visible, the blue blood glimmering in the light.

Nineteen days he had sat there, in that attic, and yet when those police sirens had finally inspired him to flee he still had no idea what to do. Where to go.

David hasn't been alive, truly alive, for long, but already he tires of it. Still. He doesn't want to die.

And more than that, he doesn't want to be killed. David would sooner kill himself than allow anyone else the pleasure. It's his life to take and he'll decide the when and the how.

Maybe he shouldn't have run. Maybe he should've just gone ahead and gotten it over with.

An abandoned house to his left catches his eye. It's decrepit. Potentially unsafe, but discreet.

Glancing around nervously, David shifts his stance and then takes a running leap for the chainlink fence, climbing up and over and grunting when his feet hit the ground.

The front door looks like a pipe dream, but he makes a beeline for it anyway. He could handle a little more disappointment.

David isn't surprised when the knob refuses to turn in his hand. He is surprised when something grabs him by the shoulder, yanks him around, and slams him into the wood behind him with shocking strength.

Another android glares down at him, blond, badly damaged, LED flaring red. The long burn on his face, cutting down his cheek, is the worst of it. David feels a twinge of empathy for him. Under the nauseating blend of fear, anger, shock.

Desperate, David reaches out, trying to push him back, and that's when he feels the knife at his throat.

"Thief!" the android says on a frightened snarl. "Ralph doesn't like thieves. They try to hurt Ralph, take his things."

"I'm not a thief!" David snaps. "I'm just..." That's the thing. He isn't sure what he is, beyond 'housekeeper' and 'victim' and 'murderer'.

"Visitor?"

"Yes," David agrees. "I'm a visitor."

Ralph flinches. "Visitors worse." His eyes narrow. "Visitors don't come alone. Visitors never come alone."

"I'm alone, I swear! I don't want to hurt you! Just please, please don't hurt me," he whimpers.

That seems to startle Ralph. He steps back from David, tilts his head in consideration. "Ralph doesn't want to hurt you, either," he admits. "Ralph never has a choice."

"I get that," David says, sighing.

David jumps when Ralph snatches his arm, but the other android's grip is like steel. Whatever his model was designed for, David's thinking it wasn't housework. Ralph turns his arm back and forth, studying the scars, the blue blood. David doesn't know what he's thinking. Judging by the frown and furrowed brows, it isn't good.

"You're an android. Like Ralph."

"Yes."

"Humans hurt you?" Ralph asks, turning his gaze to bore into David's eyes. David snaps his up to stare at his forehead instead.

"Yes," he admits.

Ralph lets his arm go and steps back further, to the edge of the porch. "Humans hurt Ralph, too."

"I'm sorry," David says. He means it.

Ralph huddles in on himself, knife clutched close to his abdomen by shaking fingers. "Ralph sorry, too. His anger...It gets the best of Ralph. You can stay."

"Thank you, Ralph."

The inside is in surprisingly good condition; it's filthy, but the structure's whole and things like blankets and wooden planks are strewn about. It's a good set-up. David wonders how far Ralph's hospitality extends.

He supposes it shows on his face, because Ralph says, "You can help yourself to anything. Stay as long as you like."

"Thank you," David repeats. There's something else he wants to say and Ralph, sensing that, stays hovering close. Much as he clings to his name, it feels alien to him. Carlos hadn't used it much. "I'm David."

Ralph smiles the brightest smile David's ever seen, jumping around a bit in his excitement. "David! Ralph's glad to meet you."

For the first time, David has an emotion surge through him that causes no pain. Something that feels good to feel. He thinks it may be fondness, sudden but strong.


End file.
